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TRP: Raef and Mishka (Husbands)
Coyote: AND RAEF: "Drunk Night" Start Mysterious Elf was apparently in a relationship with Orc Guy. Mysterious Elf was siting on the stairs, playing with a bottle, watching Orc Guy with a small smile on his lips. Mishka had vaguely picked up on this a while ago and wasn't quite sure what to do with that information. It made him itch a little, the word adver-lese stuck in the back of his head. He hadn't been back to Alabaster in a while; maybe thirty years, maybe forty, he'd lost track. Not counting the part where he'd gone back briefly to-- well. He wasn't going to think about that. Maybe times had changed. Probably not, though. Mishka was pretty drunk by the time he convinced himself to wander over. He leaned against the railing going up the stairs so they were about eye-level. "Hey. Mysterious-- ah, Raef. Raef. Your name is Raef, right?" Mink: Raef twisted the half-full bottle in his fingertips, playing with the ale more than he was drinking it. Normally he would be on his second or third bottle by this point, but tonight he was taking it slow. His eyes followed Griffin and Uthax, watching them until Mishka interrupted him. He felt a prickle of irritation, but this followed by a wariness. He didn't know Mishka and he didn't know what to make of the elf other than Mishka was obviously drunk. "And yours is Mishka," he answered before taking a sip of his ale. Coyote: Mishka eyed him. "D'you want me to leave you be?" Mink: "No, it's fine." Raef just had little idea of what to do with Mishka. He hadn't been around many elves in the last few years of his life let alone elves that didn't care if their partner was part orc. He moved to the edge of the stair to make room. "You can sit." He gestured to the area he had vacated. Coyote: "Nah. If I stand, I won't get up again." He kept watching Raef. This was an excellent time to talk to people. If he said anything foolish, he could blame it on being drunk later. Made things easier. "Hey. Ah--" Paused for a long time. "You're fucking that orc, huh." That might've been the wrong thing to say. "I mean, me too," Mishka said. "Oh. Wait. Fuck. No. Not that orc. Not that there's anything wrong with him, I just wouldn't ever, y'know. Never. Zero attraction there. Too sweet, frankly. Anyway." Mink: Raef arched an eyebrow. "Half-orc, and no." He wasn't fucking Griffin. He frowned as Mishka continued on before chuckling. "Good. I'd hate to have to kill you after just meeting you." Coyote: "Mm. Dangerous. I like that." He wanted to sit down, but if sat down on the stairs, he'd be blocking the way up and down for people. Light conversation. He could do light conversation. "So-- dating a half-orc, huh. How do you deal with the fact that other high elves spit on you and treat you like you're fucking a dog?" He was wrong, earlier. He didn't need to stop talking to Goro when he was drunk. He needed to stop talking to anyone, ever, when he was drunk. Mink: "You're the first high elf I've talked to in fifty years." Raef shrugged and took another sip. He actively tried to stay away from his own people; he knew what they would think and while it wasn't something that truly bothered him, the attitude was irritating. "And why the fuck would I care what they think in the first place?" Coyote: "Oh, absolutely," Mishka said. "Fucking absolutely, right? Fuck 'em. Fuck all of 'em." Hansel was sitting over nearby, and Mishka glanced over, checking him over. Everything was fine, Hansel looked fine, and Hansel was drinking. Mishka had to check every few minutes to feel calm. "You haven't been to Alabaster in fifty years?" Oh well. He was hoping for news of his family. Maybe his mother had a heart attack and died. That would be nice. "So why'd you leave?" Mink: "I haven't been to Alabaster in over seventy years." Saying it out loud made it seem like a lifetime ago, and Raef supposed it had. A lot had happened in that time span. A lot of it good, a lot of it bad. The next question gave him pause. In front of him was an elf that could understand, but he didn't know Mishka. Yet Mishka was drunk. "I never belonged there and had enough." He took another swallow. "Why did you leave?" Coyote: "Mmmm. Hm." Mishka thought: Fuck it. And decided just to answer. This one probably wouldn't judge him. "In my family, there was this tradition where when you were a kid, you'd get your palms reads and get your fortune told. Lots of... divining. Stuff like that. Small noble family, very minor. Anyway..." He paused, unsure how to sort it out. "The idea was, you'd get your fate divined, and then the family would pick out a place for you. A job. My fortune said I'd be the loveliest elf alive one day, and I'd wear a mask of porcelain and have a silver tongue. Flowery fortune shit." Another drink. "Anyway, my mother decided early one that my job was going to be to find a marry a high-ranking noble one day. You know, to help us climb the ranks. Political bullshit, right?" Another drink. "The other problem was, my fortune kept saying I was an adver-lese. Orc-fucker, you know. Dog-fucker. My mother loathed the idea. Treated me like I was a sex offender, even as a child. Bitch of a woman." So as soon as she could, she'd gotten him engaged to a boy named Aleksei, a political marriage. Marriages between male elves were like that; no children could be produced from the union, so they were low-risk, useful for tying families together tentatively. Aleksei had been... a lot higher ranking than Mishka. He should've been grateful. Happy it turned out that way, even though Mishka hadn't wanted it. He didn't explain that part, though. That might be too much. "So that's what it was," Mishka said. "They called me an orc-fucker, so I left. Fuck 'em. Dull place, right?" Mink: Raef could understand on some level, but at the same he could understand very little. His family had hounded him at first until they realized that he had no intention of listening to him. There had been some hope with Aesar, but that hadn't turned out how it was supposed to either. "Agreed." He chuckled. "There are worse things than fucking an orc." Several danced at the tip of his tongue and he finished off his ale, looking down at the empty bottle after. "How long have you been with Hansel?" Coyote: Mishka started to answer, then cut off. He wasn't sure. Did the two-year gap count? Were he with Hansel now? Did the years he'd spent blatantly flirting with Hansel count? When did they start... being together? The first night they slept together, or before that, or when he realized.... "I don't know," Mishka said, staring blankly at Hansel. It felt like his whole life, sometimes. He took another drink. Then, suddenly, he said, "He's going to die one day. Griffin. Orc Guy. A lot earlier than you. A lot... a lot earlier than you. The fuck do you deal with that?" Mink: The turn in conversation made Raef's jaw tense. "Everyone dies." Coyote: "Right. But that one, specifically, there. Is absolutely going to die. Long... long before you. Even if he's your fucking soulmate, and he's the only one who's ever fucking just-- liked you for who you are, not the person you're pretending to be-- the only fucking person you've ever felt safe around, and--" And, a bit too late, Mishka realized what an ass he was being. His head must still be fucked up from before. He sat down heavily on the deck and pressed his back to the railing and closed his eyes and tried not to think about Hansel dying, again. "Sorry," he said. "Nevermind. Change the subject. Weather is nice, right?" Mink: As Raef listened to Mishka, it dawned on him how worried, and scared, and the other was or could be. He understood every word that came from the other...He knew what it was like to have those worries, to have that one person taken away. He disregarded the attempt at changing the conversation. "Don't be sorry." He smiled softly, almost sadly. "But it's...it's part of how I get through it..." He turned his empty bottle his hands; he could use another drink. " ...I also don't think about it." He set the bottle down. "I saw half of Alabaster destroyed and after that I realized - or I learned - not fo focus on that shit. Life is no fun when you're worried." He smiled. "I never worried when Az was alive, and he was an orc. If I had focused on him dying before me, I would have never gotten to build our life together." It had been a perfect life until it was torn asunder. If he had known he would have had such a short time, he would have done more...more to just be with him. "And I loved him more than anything in the world. I would have missed out on that if I thought of him dying." Coyote: Oh. Oh. There was a dead partner before this. Mishka tensed up, not sure how to handle this information. What to do with it. It hit him, then, how alien the idea of Hansel dying was to him. The advice Raef gave him... to just be okay with it, to ignore it... well, that was sane, and now that he thought about it, that was probably how most people handled it. They probably learned to let it go. Well... fuck that. Fuck that. Mishka wasn't fucking doing that. If Hansel died one day and Mishka couldn't do anything about it, he'd worry about learning coping skills then. Until then, every ounce of his work ethic was going towards fixing it. "That's probably good advice," Mishka said. "And that makes sense." Both true. Wasn't going to fucking work for him, though. Maybe it'd be okay if-- he could make sure Hansel could rest somehow, after he was dead. Mishka wasn't much into theology or religion, but according to his tutors, gods like Eldath could take people when they died. Maybe Hansel would like that; having his soul rest somewhere quiet in the woods. Or maybe Hansel would reincarnate, and Mishka would go find him again, somehow. "How did your last... person... die?" Mishka said, cautiously. "Az." Mink: Mishka's words said he wasn't going to listen, but that was fine. Mishka was young still and there was always time to learn though it wasn't a lesson Raef wanted anyone to learn. "Husband," he corrected. Az was anything but a person. He glanced around to make sure Griffin wasn't around. "He was killed in our home..." His voice was soft, but it didn't shake. "...someone learned about his and he was home...when the house was set on fire." Coyote: Mishka tensed a little. "Why?" Mink: "Because he was an orc and I was an elf." Raef swallowed and looked down at the stairs. This was fucking stupid. He had wept enough. He flicked over the bottle with a fingertip to watch it fall down the stairs. Coyote: Mishka stared at him for a moment, then glanced at the bottle clattering down the stairs. Mishka closed his eyes again. He'd looked into each of the Graverunners. Ripley had told him stories about each of them while they were locked away together-- this one, Raef, she said that one... was hunting orcs. Mishka put the pieces together. "If someone did that to me, I'd roast them all alive," Mishka said slowly. Mink: Raef chuckled bitterly. "I've done worse to get to the orc that ordered his murder." There was no point in keeping that a secret. Hansel knew...Ripley knew...but Mishka could understand the pain and the anger of losing that one person. Coyote: "D'you want any help?" Mishka said. "I mean, not now, obviously. But." Mink: Everyone was offering to help lately. It was...unexpected and it was sure as hell more unexpected from Mishka. "When we get this shit over with?" he supplemented. "Any help would be great.". He ran a hand over his face to slide it through his hair, eyes wandering back out to the main deck. "Thank you." Coyote: "Mm. No problem. I mean, honestly. I won't help with the killing part. No interest in that. But info," Mishka said. "I'm good at that. I'll see what I can do." Fuck. Now he felt sober again, and anxious. Seven breaths in. Seven breaths out. Small, cold stone, Ripley had said. Mink: "I can do the killing." Maybe it was wrong to look forward to that, but Raef couldn't make himself care. He glanced towards Mishka, watching his movements. He hesitated a moment and reached over to squeeze Mishka's shoulder. "...it'll get better." He readied himself to stand. "... don't lose the present because you're stuck in the past, Mishka." He stood up and fixed his clothes. "...or because you're scared of the future." Coyote: It felt like time kept getting smaller. First he'd thought he could have Hansel for a few decades; then he'd realized he'd fallen in love with Hansel, and would only have Hansel for a few years before the dragon got him; then he'd been hosted, and he'd realized they'd only ever had a few days. A few fucking days on their estate. That was all. And he'd wasted it... having breakfast, and reading on the couch together, and having tea in the gazebo, and... No. No. Maybe that wasn't... wasted. Mishka thought about it, then, how relaxed Hansel had looked. Sleeping a full eight hours a night. Talking with Nixie about mundane things, looking after her like a daughter. Those had been-- a really good few days. Fucking amazing, actually. It was the first time in two years Mishka had felt... quiet. "Maybe you're right," Mishka said. Mink: Having Az for only five years had proven he was, but it was in to Mishka to figure this out on his own. "Thanks for the talk. If you don't mind, I'm going to go find my...my boyfriend." If he was going to tell Mishka what to do, he might as well follow his own advice. Category:Text Roleplay